President Biden faces a slew of challenges From major network personalities, Columnists and media allies have urged him to drop out of the race — but many have stopped short of calling for the commander-in-chief to step down as president, despite concerns about his age and mental acuity.
Liberal journalist Jonathan Alter echoed the sentiments of media outlets who were upset at Biden’s candidacy, as his debate performance was widely criticized. He wrote that the president is “too old to serve” and that Democrats should hold an open convention.
In a statement Fox News Digital, “I believe Democrats need a different candidate to defeat Donald Trump and save the republic from a dangerous man who is bent on destroying it,” Alter said.
“Biden is too old to be a candidate and remain president until 2029, but he is not too old to complete his term,” he said.
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Members of the media have been pressing to replace Biden on the Democratic ticket for the November election, but have stopped short of saying he is ineligible to serve out the remainder of his current term. (Screenshot/Times/Post/Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
After the debate, Maureen Dowd of The New York Times compared Biden to former President Trump and suggested the president was being selfish by staying in the race.
“He’s putting himself ahead of the country. He’s surrounded by opportunistic supporters,” Dowd said. “He’s created a reality-distorting field where we’re told not to believe what we’ve seen so clearly. His arrogance is infuriating. He says he’s doing this for us, but really he’s doing it for himself.”
Dowd wrote that Biden has been “clearly on a decline” over the past few years and “looked haunted” with “timid moves” in the debate. He also suggested that it was not just a “bad night” for Biden and called his bid for re-election an “extraordinarily risky gambit.”
When asked whether Biden was fit to discharge his duties for the remainder of his term, Dowd referred Fox News Digital to her column and did not comment further.
Tom Friedman, A close friend of Biden’s, A New York Times column on Friday said the president has no business running for re-election and called his performance in the debate “heartbreaking.”
President Joe Biden arrives for a news conference at the White House on July 1, 2024 in Washington, DC (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“To give America the greatest chance of stopping the Trump threat in November, the president must come forward and announce that he is not seeking re-election and send all of his delegates to the Democratic National Convention,” he said.
He said Biden’s performance made him “cry.”
Fellow Times columnists Nicholas Kristof and Paul Krugman also urged Biden to step down from the stage. Like Friedman, they also viewed his presidency as a progressive success but said he should not run for re-election.
Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, who previously wrote a column, “President Biden should not run for re-election in 2024,” reiterated his stance on the president on Friday.
After declaring Biden a “very good president” in most ways, Ignatius wrote that Biden, with the “wisdom of his era,” has an opportunity to give the country a fresh start and step aside.
“Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough, who recently criticized An article from the Wall Street Journal It suggests Biden’s mental acuity is “waning,” he said on Friday, declaring his “love” for the president but acknowledging his debate performance raises questions about whether he should stand for re-election.
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Potential replacements for Joe Biden include Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer and Pete Buttigieg. (Getty Images)
The host said, “If he were a CEO and he performed like this, would any company in America, any Fortune 500 company, keep him as CEO?”
Later, Donny Deutsch, a frequent guest on the program, mournfully cast doubt on Biden’s ability to win in November.
He said, “If truth be told, I don’t believe that Joe Biden, a great man, a hero — he’s ten times a better person than Donald Trump — I don’t believe that he’s the best choice for us at this point in time.”
Deutsch declined to comment for this story.
Even some The President’s Biggest Supporter In an appearance on ABC’s “The View,” he suggested it was time for him to take a step back after watching the debate.
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin, a former Trump administration official who has become one of his fiercest critics, said Biden surprised her in the debate.
“I’ve been concerned about Biden’s age for a few years,” Griffin said. “This performance was worse than I expected.”
“He needs to put the country ahead of his own ambition and he needs to step aside and hand the reins over to somebody else,” Griffin said. “If it’s Trump versus Biden, Trump will win.”
Liberal columnist Jill Filipovic pressured First Lady Jill Biden to exert her influence and get the president to leave the race.
President Joe Biden looks down as he participates in the first presidential debate of the 2024 elections with former President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at CNN’s studios on June 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Getty Images)
David Remnick of The New Yorker also called Biden’s debate performance troubling and said that Biden was endangering democracy by remaining in the race.
“Stepping aside and beginning the complex process of finding and nominating a more strong and promising ticket appears to be a more logical course of action and would be a patriotic act,” he said.
Remnick further added, “Refusing to do so, to continue arguing that his good days outweigh the bad, to ignore the inevitability of time and aging, not only puts his legacy at risk — it puts the election at risk, and most importantly, it puts at risk the issues and principles that Biden has seen as central to his presidency and essential to his future.”
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If Biden remains in office and is re-elected, he will be 86 years old at the end of his second term.
Friedman, Kristof, Krugman, Ignatius, Scarborough, Farrah Griffin, Filipovich and Remnick did not comment when Fox News Digital asked whether Biden could confidently finish his current term.
Fox News’s David Rutz and Hannah Panrek contributed to this report.
